Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital (Grand Rapids, Mich.). Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital began as a small, furnished house to care for elderly, homeless and ill parishioners of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in 1873. The facility, then known as St. Mark’s Church Home, later relocated to a larger building and was renamed St. Mark’s Home and Hospital. The hospital reported 30 total admissions and seven births in its first full year.
Butterworth Hospital has since involved into the 1,048-bed flagship of Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids. The facility is named after Richard Butterworth, a businessman who helped create Grand Rapids and donated the land and money to expand the hospital and get it up to speed to meet the growing city’s needs. In 2013, U.S. News & World Report ranked Butterworth Hospital among the top 50 hospitals nationally in endocrinology, gynecology and pulmonology.
In 1958, Butterworth Hospital became the first hospital in the U.S. to perform outpatient surgery. The hospital also has one of the largest fine art collections of any hospital in the country: William Johnston, MD, and his wife, Beverly, established the collection because they believe art played a critical role in helping to heal the sick. Today, Butterworth Hospital has more than 7,700 employees. As Spectrum Health’s flagship, it is charged with leading the system’s primary vision: to be the national leader for health by 2020.
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